How Do The Kings Get BETTER Next Season? HOW?

[Ararat15]

Matti, Jason Smith, or Mike Commodore. Sign 2 of the 3 for like $2.5M....you're golden on D.

[CBGB]

My responses in red

Originally Posted by KingFanMGM

Defenseman - Potential 2008 NHL Unrestricted Free Agents
Player Age Team 07-08 Salary Contract Notes
Nicklas Lidstrom 37 DET $7,600,000 - Resigned
Wade Redden 30 OTT $6,500,000 Has said in the past he would never play for the Kings
Rob Blake 37 LAK $6,000,000 No doubt, he'll be resigned
Adam Foote 35 CLB $4,600,000 Injury prone and will resign in Colorado
Mattias Norstrom 35 DAL $4,250,000 going to play back in Sweden
Dan Boyle 30 TBL $3,625,000 - Resigned
Brad Stuart 27 LAK $3,500,000 overpriced and useless
Darius Kasparaitis 34 NYR $3,116,000 sucks
Paul Mara 27 NYR $3,000,000 worse than Stuart
Aaron Ward 34 BOS $2,750,000 Dean doesn't sign 35 year olds... oh, wait
Teppo Numminen 38 BUF $2,600,000 ISn't he on the shelf?
Oleg Tverdovsky 31 LAK $2,500,000 - Hahahaha
Marek Malik 32 NYR $2,500,000 think Modry, only worse
Bret Hedican 36 CAR $2,432,000 37 year old? Nope
Michal Rozsival 28 NYR $2,300,000 3 million for Rozsival? Right
Dmitri Kalinin 26 BUF $2,250,000 WE HAVE A WINNER
Barret Jackman 26 STL $2,200,000 - Resigned
Keith Carney 37 MIN $2,100,000 he sucked when he was with the ducks 3 years ago
Dick Tarnstrom 32 EDM $2,000,000 not with Edmonton, and still sucks
Jason Smith 33 PHI $1,976,000 YES, PLEASE!
Nick Schultz 24 MIN $1,850,000 this is who Dean will wind up signing
Brian Campbell 28 BUF $1,750,000 if he turned down 6 years at 30 million.... wait, we already have Lubo
Mark Eaton 30 PIT $1,600,000 yuck
Brent Sopel 30 CHI $1,500,000 double yuck
Bryce Salvador 31 STL $1,500,000 New Jersey actually, triple yuck
Aaron Miller 35 VAN $1,500,000 guess he didn't get that 2 year deal he was looking for
Andrei Zyuzin 29 CHI $1,475,000 Aw crap, DL drafted him and will figure out a way to sell him to Kings fans as the next coming of Christ
Glen Wesley 38 CAR $1,400,000 as old as Blake
John-Michael Liles 26 COL $1,400,000 not a bad price but having an awful year
Karel Rachunek 27 NJD $1,400,000 dunno
Richard Matvichuk 34 NJD $1,368,000 disgusting
Mike Commodore 27 CAR $1,300,000 WE HAVE A WINNER!
Jim Vandermeer 27 CHI $1,225,000 no thanks
Nolan Baumgartner 31 DAL $1,200,000 no thanks
Jaroslav Modry 36 LAK $1,200,000 no thanks
Petteri Nummelin 34 MIN $1,200,000 no thanks
Jan Hejda 29 CLB $1,000,000 I actually like this guy... but what do I know
Andreas Lilja 31 DET $1,000,000 I'd take Lilja back, and he loves it here - he was super bummed when he left the 1st time - it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him retun at an overinflated price
Ron Hainsey 26 CLB $900,000 the rest below are useless
Chris Chelios 45 DET $850,000
Branislav Mezei 26 FLA $850,000
Steve Montador 27 FLA $800,000
Steve McCarthy 26 ATL $725,000
Bryan Berard 30 NYI $725,000
Kurt Sauer 26 COL $719,000
Joe DiPenta 28 ANA $700,000
Magnus Johansson 33 CHI $700,000
Patrice Brisebois 36 MTL $700,000
Alexei Semenov 26 SJS $650,000
Sandis Ozolinsh 34 SJS $625,000
Mark Streit 29 MTL $600,000
Matt Walker 27 STL $600,000
Mike Weaver 29 VAN $600,000
David Hale 26 CGY $590,000
Nolan Pratt 31 BUF $550,000
Rory Fitzpatrick 32 PHI $550,000
Jassen Cullimore 34 FLA $535,000
Alain Nasreddine 31 PIT $535,000
Freddy Meyer 26 NYI $525,000
Rob Davison 27 SJS $525,000
Bobby Allen 28 BOS $500,000
Jeff Jillson 26 COL $500,000
Sheldon Brookbank 26 NJD $500,000
Andrew Hutchinson 27 NYR $500,000
Jason Strudwick 31 NYR $500,000
Luke Richardson 38 OTT $500,000
Micki DuPont 27 STL $500,000
Andy Wozniewski 27 TOR $500,000
Kevin Dallman 26 LAK $490,000
Jeff Finger 27 COL $475,000
Allan Rourke 27 EDM $475,000
Sean Hill 37 MIN $475,000
Mike Mottau 29 NJD $475,000
Matt Carkner 26 OTT $475,000
Ryan Caldwell 26 PHX $475,000
Brad Norton 32 SJS $475,000
Doug Janik 27 TBL $475,000

[paki4]

Originally Posted by chu gar

Umm, play better?

New slogan for next year...

PLAY HARDER!

[photomike]

If Army is on the 2nd line again next year??? Kings won't be any better....

[arizonabay]

Murder the 29 other teams?

[adgy-san]

Originally Posted by Iron Duke

Unless our defensive and goaltending situations can be improved upon, we're still well out of playoff contention next year.

Concur. I know we need defense but a tandem of LaBarbera and Cloutier next season is going to be tough.

I'd almost rather sean Lombardi move Cammalleri and whatever for Josh Harding and whatever than a young d-man.

[DMAN3474]

Originally Posted by Die Radio Die

All Aboard the Trade Down Express!!!

Sign me up.

lets see if Nashville can get up to the number 3 pick with the first rounder they aquired from florida. then I can see DL doing something like trading the first overall (hopefully) to them for their number 3 pick and one of the kids on defense they have that are RFA's this year (Klein, Suter, and Weber) and maybe another lower pick or something like that. Myabe if we tossed cammi in the mix we could do something like cammi and the first overall for the 3rd overall, one of the D kids, and the other mid level first round pick they have

The other move we would need to do would be with minnesota. It would be Labs and a top prospect/ high pick. maybe a second and third pick or two 2nd round picks for Backstrom.

These two moves would put us in a much better position than this season. It would give us a real #1 goalie which we will need for a couple of years until one of our goalie prospects are ready. And it would give us another young solid D-man. This plus a free agent d-man (commodore) would make us very strong on the back end.

[Ararat15]

Originally Posted by adgy-san

Concur. I know we need defense but a tandem of LaBarbera and Cloutier next season is going to be tough.

I'd almost rather sean Lombardi move Cammalleri and whatever for Josh Harding and whatever than a young d-man.

We'd probably have better luck getting Mason from Nashville or even Lehtonen from Atlanta (he really hasn't shown much to warrant his lofty draft status and Pavalec isn't far off from becoming a real option for them in net).

Not saying that either would be a vast improvement over Labs or Cloutier, but if we were looking for a netminder...

Honestly, the best thing we could do would be to get a couple Defensive D-men in the offseason. I think Labs can hold his own behind a good defense for a couple of seasons until Bernier is ready.

[King Ludwig]

Here are a few ideas on improving the Kings...in no particular order...

Buy out Beachball's contract...and get someone that can actually stop something smaller than a Mack truck...
Give Blake a contract as player/assistant coach since he seems to be the chosen one to mentor our kids on D...
Get a few stay at home defensemen with a tough edge to them...
Top two center...don't care if it's 1 or 2...
FIRE CRAWFORD!!!!

[KingFanMGM]

lol CBGB... "the rest below are useless" and the 1st name beneath is Chris Chelios. We all know he isn't leaving Detroit until he retires, but you have to admit that if it were anyway possible he would be the perfect type of player needed for us next year. He would not be a long-term signing though given his age.

As you did say though, Jason Smith and Mike Commodore are the best of the lot that would fit our needs best with the current defensemen on the roster. Rachunek is also a possiblity. Devils play a very physical style D and he's got a bit of an edge to him.

Stuart I wouldn't call "useless". He started the season poorly as most Kings did, but he was one of our best since the new year.

Liilja I would be okay with bringing him back, just no Corvo!!!

[Defgarden]

Originally Posted by Die Radio Die

That's actually fairly convincing.